1. Technical Field
The invention is related to a system and process for automatically remotely controlling the security state of an Internet web page having at least two frames wherein the web page is displayed via an Internet browser or other application for displaying Internet web pages.
2. Related Art
By way of background, existing schemes using frame-based display of third-party web pages typically use hyperlinks within a frame to point to a third-party web page. User selection of such a hyperlink typically causes a frame within the window of an Internet browser to be replaced with the third party web page. However, if the hyperlink points to a third party web page requiring SSL, such as by using an HTTPS address, the frame replaced with the third party web page will be secure, while the remaining frames within the window will remain in whatever state they were in at the time that the hyperlink was selected or activated by the user. Consequently, a mixture of secure and non-secure frames will exist within the same browser or application window, thereby typically causing the end user to be warned of the mix of secure and insecure content and preventing the browser from enabling the security icons which indicate a completely encrypted connection.
Further, in some cases, a hyperlink in a frame may point to a non-HTTPS address that is subsequently redirected by the non-HTTPS address to an HTTPS address. In such cases, there will again be a mixture of secure and non-secure frames existing within the same window. Consequently, in such cases, a typical end user would feel unsafe in sending confidential information, such as, for example, credit numbers, or social security numbers, over the Internet via the mixed-security window.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for automatically remotely controlling the security state of a web page and any frames associated with that web page.